I know I am a little (read ‘extremely’) late to the party with my impressions of this film. I wanted a chance to mull it over a little before putting… errr… finger to keyboard. (Is that the digital version of pen to paper?!)

The premise

So every was clearly excited going into this film. 2 legends clashing against each other – Modern vs Past, Ethics vs Progress, Day vs Night –wait, wasn’t that the other guys? – but in this film we got the added bonus of more characters. The do however stick their collective ores into what is actually a straightforward situation.

So broadly speaking, the opening is that Cap is involved in a mission that (debatable) goes bad. Some innocent people get predictably injured, and off of the back of it the US government decide that these people with super powers (or suits, or apparently anyone that basically know how to handle themselves in the case of Hawkeye and black widow) need to be overseen by elected officials, as they should not just be running around killing people, beating them down or generally breaking the law.

For some inexplicable reason, Cap decides ‘MURICA! ’ and decides to stick it to the man. Which is odd as presumably he is already being payed to do what he does. Otherwise how can he afford to eat, home himself and gets workplace perks by way of his government shield and suit.

The more I think about this, the more I think that they didn’t need to make anyone sign a contract. Just a change in policy would have sufficed as everyone is already on the payroll in some way or another.

Criticism

It’s the ‘War’ part of Civil War that had people excited. 2 teams, fighting it out to impose their ideas upon the world. And that’s my main criticism of the film. It just didn’t deliver on that front. The pinnacle of the film is a fight that takes place in an airport. This fight consists of maybe 10 people. THIS IS NOT WAR. This is more akin to a punch up in my local pub.

The film didn’t include any combatants apart from the major characters. It would have made more sense for the military or some other government agents to be involved in some way. (Yes I know they would be under powered, but when you can bring tanks to bear why are you sitting on your thumb doing nothing?)

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the limitations that the film industry has to work under. My main objection is that they failed to contextualize it in any way. The film could have been improved dramatically by including any opinion outside of the core characters. A shot of the tv where someone is being interviewed about the topic? Literally anything that showed people outside of the main plot even cared.

Counterpoint

If at this point you are asking yourself ‘Should I even go and see this then?’ well, the answer is a resounding yes. For several reasons.

It is an entertaining film. A lot of good jokes come from Ant man, as well as from Spiderman who comically is enthralled to be involved in the situation. It’s also worthy of note that

Its worthy of note that you probably need to watch this film to connect with any of the characters in the marvel universe going forward. Not only does the ending put the future of several characters in question, but It also does a really good job in introducing (what is arguably the best character in this film) Black Panther.

The fight scenes are good, the acting is good. I recommend going to see it. Just not thinking about it for too long afterwards.